


Sophistication

by Subtle_Shenanigans



Category: Tom & Jerry - Fandom
Genre: Cat, Contemplation, Enemies, Gen, Not Friends, Wordy, do not repost to another site, i dunno, i showered and then this popped in my head, mouse - Freeform, natural order?, no beta we die like men, weird piece
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 10:21:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20691911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Subtle_Shenanigans/pseuds/Subtle_Shenanigans
Summary: The cat and the mouse.





	Sophistication

**Author's Note:**

> Look I really like Tom and Jerry and I just dunno okay?

There was a sophistication, to the cat and the mouse.

The cat made a living through service; a trade of lodging and food, by devotion to ridding the house of unwanted guests.

He was a cog in the machine with the workman’s status; the moment he became useless, he was to be removed and thrown away. So of course the cat would take great pains to keep his trade, and work hard in his service.

He was a civil creature. In the beginning the mouse was merely removed and displaced. Simple, easy, efficient. Then it came back. again. and again.  _ and again. _

And the cat, not prone to giving way, allowed himself to fall back on instinct, and rage, which led to a mockery as he made a fool out of himself.

The cog wheel is tossed, and fitted to another machine.

The mouse follows.

The mouse for his part is a vagabond; a traveler, a scavenger. His work is no less important for he merely seeks to survive himself. His craft is to employ trickery and sneakiness; to steal. He steals lodging, and food, all in the name of self-preservation. His action is not trade but dependance. 

He finds the cat as a source of entertainment.

The cat, the first many fights and years, is not amused.

Neither can begrudge the other, however; for they seek their own means of survival and employ through their own ways. Is the cat wrong in his trade, or the mouse wrong in his dependance? For neither can farm nor build to the comfort and continuity that mankind can.

They are, essentially, codependent on one another.

For without the mouse, the cat has no need to offer his services. And the mouse, no need to feel justified in his actions without the danger.

That doesn’t mean they must enjoy, or even tolerate one another.

But to acknowledge, well - 

There’s a roaring fire and the cat curls up, stretching white paws in the air and mouth split in a yawn. His ear flicks for he hears the squeak of mouse but he makes no move; winter makes truces and as long as the mouse is out of sight, out of mind, the cat doesn’t care.

And the mouse respects this truce, not for the cat but more for the store he has saved up in warmly-lined walls, sure to last longer than his need for justification.

Winter brings truces but the Spring brings sun, melting such snow so that the game of cat and mouse can begin anew.

**Author's Note:**

> Imagine one of those really nice detailed paintings for that end part I guess.


End file.
